The Coal Room
by averagemuggle
Summary: This is a tale of Charlie Calvin and Fred, little sister of the arc-elf Bernard. Both bothered by the pressure to follow in their relatives footsteps, the two find a bond of trust, friendship, and a love that could never be. my THE SANTA CLAUS 4
1. Welcome to the Coal Room

Charlie had never been to the coal room before. He didn't like much at all. Although it was kept to some level of cheeriness, the bright red and yellow lights gave the illusion that one of the stoves had erupted in flames. Not to mention, elves scared him. Their pinstriped T-shirts and sweat pants covered in soot only made them look tougher. He looked around, with no idea of how to find who he was looking for.

"Can I help you?" The elf towered over him squinting at him.

"I-I'm looking for Fred?" Charlie answered it like it was a question, asking if the sentence would get his face blown off.

The elf leaned his head towards the red ceiling, "Freddie! Get down here! Some elf is asking for you!" he called.

The sound of squeaking metal ran in Charlie's ears before a black ladder thudded on the ground before him, a black haired elf came down with it. The elf leaned to the side and smiled at him. It was a girl. Her hair was shoulder-length, but it may have gone halfway down her back if it wasn't an array of bouncy curls, she had a large nose, dark brown eyes, her young face was covered with laugh lines, "Hi!" she said, "What's up?"

"I-uh-I was supposed to give this to you," he stammered, holding out the yellow slip of paper.

She took it, unfolded it, and laughed as she read it, deepening her dimples. "Thanks," she said as she folded it and leaned close to him to tuck it in his shirt pocket before patting it playfully and turning to a furnace and grabbing a shovel.

"A-Actually, I think you were supposed to keep that," he stuttered matter-of-factly.

She turned to him, a shovel full of coal in her gloved hands. An annoyed sarcastic glare played in her eyes, "Well, then I'll just say I lost if I ever need it," she said.

Charlie gulped, "O-Okay, I-I guess that works."

Fred smiled, "Good," she said.

Charlie stood there for a moment, too uncomfortable to move.

Fred noticed this, "This is the part where you turn around and l-"

"Shouldn't you be sewing dolls' dresses?" Charlie hadn't meant to say it, he just blurted it out.

Fred looked enraged, "Just because I'm a girl, doesn't mean I can't get sentenced to the coal room. Naughty kids get coal, and naughty elves make it. Girls can be naughty. I'm just the only one who has the guts. And _this_" she terrified him more than all the other elves in the room put together, "is when you leave!"

Charlie began to walk away from her deadly glare, "R-right," he turned around and immediately walked briskly out of the room. Shutting the door behind him, he leaned his back against it, collecting his breath.

"Noticed that Fred's a girl?"

Charlie spun around at the voice. Spencer was looking up at him.

"Y-yeah," Charlie stuttered.

"Yeah, she can be pretty edgy. I probably should have told you that," Curtis said.

"What did I just give her?" Charlie asked.

"A notice, telling her we found proof that she made the tinsel bombs," Curtis said, "And then set them of in the cookie dough room."

"She did that?!" Charlie exclaimed.

"Yep, although she not following in Bernard's footsteps, she's as good a troublemaker as her big brother is arc-elf, maybe better."


	2. doll's dresses

Charlie couldn't stop thinking about Fred. Just thinking of her cold eyes made him shiver. Those eyes had him up every night, he expected to turn and see them, staring into the deepest regions of his soul. The fear followed him everywhere. He had been back with his mom for almost a month, and, even though she was way back in the north pole, and it would take a miracle for her to come to him and jump out at him only to scare him, he still jumped every time he saw something out of the corner of his eye.

She reminded him of himself, or, who he had been during his first year of high school. Vandalizing everything in sight, just for the thrill of it. Hoping that maybe he wouldn't need to shake the stupid snow globe for his dad to realize that he needed him. Turned out all it had taken was for him to get on the naughty list, and even then, he hadn't just come back for Charlie. He wondered why Fred was doing what she was doing, was she going through what he was going through? Maybe Bernard was overshadowing her in her parents' eyes. Or maybe she was overshadowed by her older brother in everyone's eyes. The questions tickled Charlie's mind with no relief. She intrigued him. He didn't know why, but she did.

The months wore on the way they always did. Charlie went to school, hung out with friends, ate dinner at home. His father visited regularly, often bringing Charlie's step-mom and his baby brother, Buddy. Life was normal, other than Fred tugging at his mind every waking hour, pulling him from what was going on to a small corner of his brain to ponder her. Making it incredibly hard to concentrate, especially in school. But he held on enough to get through the year with decent grades and found himself in the last week before school, exited about the last day, when he'd get to spend a whole month with his dad at the North Pole.

----------

"I've been looking forward to this all year."

"That's great. I haven't really got much planned though, We've been busy with Buddy, and most kids have been good this year, so it's been pretty busy with toys. We've made more than enough coal for three years already. And let me tell you, those coal room elves aren't happy about it. They've been complaining non-stop that kids can only get so naughty. Did I tell you that Buddy's started walking?" Charlie's dad had been talking non-stop about everything that had been happening last year. Charlie secretly hoped he would, seeing that all that had happened to him was think about Fred. But his father had stopped talking, and was surely about to ask him what was new with him, so he jumped in.

"Well, why don't you just stop the coal room then?" Charlie asked.

"Because," His dad answered, "The coal room isn't just to make coal, it's to teach naughty elves to be nice. You see, nice kids get toys, and nice elves make toys. So it's only natural that naughty kids get coal and naughty elves make coal. Get it?"

"Yeah, that makes sense," answered Charlie.

"Oh! Looks like we're here!" his dad exclaimed as he pulled the sled down to the snowy ground. Charlie had seen this happen a thousand times before, so he didn't flinch when the reindeer disappeared, or when the sled began floating down, and he found himself looking down upon the magical workshop. The elves looked like a million tiny dots, until they all gathered together around where the sled would land. They became a giant blob, with tiny hands waving up at them.

The sled came to a halt, stepping out, Charlie immediately found himself crushed by someone of a height that could only be his step mom, "Welcome back Charlie," she said, "It's great to see you again." She let him go.

"It's nice to see you again too," Charlie answered.

----------------

Charlie had been at the North Pole for three days and was happily enjoying his time there. He enjoyed bonding with his baby brother and playing tinsel football with the other elves, he helped in making toys and always found somewhere he hadn't been before when just exploring, which was what he was doing when he turned to see the cold eyes he'd been fearing for so many months. Only they weren't cold, they were mischievous, almost gleeful even. Although, that did change when he took a step to walk past her, tripped, and knocked down her box.

"Thanks for that," she said sarcastically after shrieking.

"Sorry, here, I'll help you," Charlie knelt down to throw the clothes that were scattered on the floor back into the box.

Fred huffed, "Thanks," she said.

Charlie picked up an artistically decorated doll's dress that looked like it belonged in an art gallery instead of a workshop. "Did you make these?" he asked.

"Sure," she answered without looking up.

"Looks like you are meant for sewing dolls dresses," Charlie joked.

"What?" she said in an annoyed grunt before looking up at him, "Oh, it's you."

"Yeah, that's me," Charlie joked.

Fred squinted her eyes and tilted her head before reaching out to grab one of his ears, "What's wrong with your ears?" she asked.

"Wha-oh, I-I'm not an elf," Charlie explained.

"Then what are you doing here?" she asked.

"Visiting my dad."

Fred only looked more confused.

"My dad, Santa," Charlie explained.

Fred's eyes didn't widen or hold any look of surprise, she just said, "Oh, _that's_ what all the commotion was about a couple days ago!"

And with that, she picked up her box, and walked away.


End file.
